Movie Watch: 80 Years Ago Today, Fascists Murdered Spain's Greatest Poet, Federico García Lorca

In 1936, democratic Spain was overrun by right wing extremists of the Trump variety who soon went on a murderous rampage against, among others, gays. The greatest poet in Spanish history, Federico García Lorca, was arrested by the fascists and executed on August 19, 1936-- 80 years ago today-- making the whole world a poorer place. (His work was banned in his native country by the right-wing government, our allies, until 1953.)

Released in 2008 in the U.K. and in 2010 in the U.S., Little Ashes is a film, set in the 1920s and '30s, about the friendship between Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí and Lorca. Trigger warning: I suggest you watch the film (above)... unless you're queasy about gay sex. But if you think preventing Trump and his Trumpists from getting into the White House and taking over the country isn't that big of a deal, watch the film even if you have to close your eyes during the steamy scenes.

European fascists know exactly what Trump is

Love Sleeps in the Poet's Heart
You'll never understand my love for you,
because you dream inside me, fast asleep.
I hide you, persecuted though you weep,
from the penetrating steel voice of truth.
Normalcy stirs both flesh and blinding star,
and pierces even my despairing heart.
Confusing reasoning has eaten out
the wings on which your spirit fiercely soared:
onlookers who gather on the garden lawn
await your body and my bitter grief,
their jumping horses made of light, green manes.
But go on sleeping now, my life, my dear.
Hear my smashed blood rebuke their violins!
See how they still must spy on us, so near!

RIP

Who Would Murder Someone In Cold Blood For Being Different?

Lump of right-wing pig offal that talks

Do you think a talking pile of North Carolina pig offal with a wandering eye would bind the hands of the world's greatest poet and drag him out to an empty field with her right-wing comrades? Do you think she would pick up an NRA-sanctioned semi-automatic, scream "Jesus I love you; take this filthy maricón to hell," and shoot him in the back? But first make him dig his grave?

It's hard to imagine political figures doing something like that-- or even just ordering it be done. But it happens. Why?

Last night I watched a screener for the film Little Ashes, the story of the stunted romance between Federico García Lorca and Salvador Dalí. It was set as the far right overthrew the democratically elected government of Spain and plunged that country into a horrifying abyss where it lingered in reactionary misery for over four decades. By the end of the film I was haunted by the putrid display I had watched of the talking pile of North Carolina pig offal with the wandering eye calling the brutal torture and murder of Matthew Shepard a "hoax" on the floor of the House of Representatives last week as she prepared to vote against the kinds of hate crimes by which gay people like Matthew Shepard and Federico García Lorca come to be murdered in lonely, desolate fields by people like Virginia Foxx.

After García Lorca's execution on August 19, 1936 he was tossed into an unmarked grave, the circumstances of his death shrouded in secrecy and his work-- the work of the Spain's greatest poet-- was banned for nearly two decades and then released with all references to gay love murdered like him and hidden like his dead body-- and by the same foul, small-minded right-wing offal. García Lorca's brilliant work was resurrected with the death of a Spanish antecedent of Virginia Foxx, Francisco Franco, self-proclaimed defender of traditional values, resurrected through the efforts of Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen, Antonio Machado, Dmitri Shostakovich, The Pogues and The Clash.

Right-wing icon Jack Kemp died yesterday. He wasn't murdered for having been, at one time, gay-for-pay; he died an old man (73), of cancer, having denied "the incident" his whole life. The same way Larry Craig does. (Democrats are less likely to stay in the closet and last night former state Senator and California Democratic Party chairman Art Torres came out.) Rightists don't accept their homosexuality and can't abide anyone else accepting their own. To quote Mike Lux, in an explanation of the conservative pathology in his book, The Progressive Revolution:

We must adhere to tradition because once we tamper with tradition, society goes to hell. It’s a scary world out there, and the people who have always run things can protect us, but only if we stay with our traditions and keep things the way they have always been. People who are different from us create problems, and we don’t want our traditions or the carefully built structure of our society undermined.

Just ask Francisco Franco or Virginia Foxx.



Love Sleeps in the Poet's Heart
You'll never understand my love for you,
because you dream inside me, fast asleep.
I hide you, persecuted though you weep,
from the penetrating steel voice of truth.
Normalcy stirs both flesh and blinding star,
and pierces even my despairing heart.
Confusing reasoning has eaten out
the wings on which your spirit fiercely soared:
onlookers who gather on the garden lawn
await your body and my bitter grief,
their jumping horses made of light, green manes.
But go on sleeping now, my life, my dear.
Hear my smashed blood rebuke their violins!
See how they still must spy on us, so near!

RIP

Iraqi Puppet Regime To Execute People Convicted Of Being Gay

I remember when Bush and Cheney were floating plausible excuses for invading Iraq, one that stuck with the media shills and worked for a few undiscerning members of the public was how much better their vision of Iraq would be for women. Saddam Hussein's Iraq was no paradise, to put it mildly-- especially not for even the mildest of regime opponents-- but it was secular and encouraged women to develop as independent beings rather than as chattel. The Bush and Cheney crocodile tears for women soon gave way to a search for nuclear weapons and as the lot of women under a more backward theocratically-empowered coalition started to deteriorate, we didn't hear much from Bush or Cheney. But at least there had been crocodile tears for women. Not even Cheney would have been so transparent as to claim that the invasion of Iraq would improve the lot of gay people. Nor will he particularly care that their lot has significantly deteriorated under the puppet American regime.

It's a crime to be gay in Bush's liberated Iraq. There are gay people in prison and slated for execution... this week. Ali Hili of Iraqi-LGBT, speaking in London, after his civil rights group was banned from Iraqi soil:

We have information and reports on members of our community whom been arrested and waiting for execution for the crimes of homosexuality... Raids by the Iraqi police and Ministry of Interior forces cost our group [to the extent of] disappearing and killing of 17 members working for Iraqi-LGBT since 2005.

The death penalty has been increasing at an alarming rate in Iraq since the new Iraqi regime reintroduced it in August 2004.

In 2008, at least 285 people were sentenced to death, and at least 34 executed.  In 2007 at least 199 people were sentenced to death and 33 were executed, while in 2006 at least 65 people were put to death.

The actual figures could be much higher as there are no official statistics for the number of prisoners facing execution.

The American-trained security forces have not just rounded up gay people, they are also accused of using Bush-condoned "we do not torture" torture techniques. Amnesty International says there are 128 people on death row and that there is no information on who they are or why they're facing the death penalty. Is the Obama administration going to tolerate this? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says "no," at least in theory. She says the persecution of gays won't be ignored by the new administration. Speaking at the European Parliament she had some very lofty ideals: "Human rights is and always will be one of the pillars of our foreign policy. And in particular, the persecution and discrimination against gays and lesbians is something that we take very seriously. It is terribly unfortunate that right now in unfortunately many places in the world violence against gays and lesbians, certainly discrimination and prejudice are not just occurring but condoned and protected. And we would hope that over the next few years we could have some influence in trying to change those attitudes.”

In 1936 Spain was overrun by right wing extremists who went on a murderous rampage against, among others, gays. The greatest poet in Spanish history, Federico García Lorca, was arrested by the fascists and executed on August 19, 1936, making the whole world a poorer place. (His work was banned in his native country by the right-wing government until 1953.) Let's hope civilized nations persuade Iraqi rightists not to murder the next García Lorca. And let's hope the Obama Administration helps. They can do something in Iraq, even if they can't in Iran. But whether they do or they don't, you can... here.



UPDATE: Homophobic Killing Spree In Iraq

PageOneQ reminds us that in the Iraq Bush created it isn't only the government murdering gay people. Crazed fanatics in the delusional clergy encouraged the faithful to murder gay people-- and they did, at least half a dozen this week.

Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous for gays and lesbians in Iraq since the rise of religious militias after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein six years ago.

"Two young men were killed on Thursday. They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honour," a Sadr City official who declined to be named said.

The police source who declined to be named said the bodies of four gay men were unearthed in Sadr City on March 25, each bearing a sign reading "pervert" in Arabic on their chests.
Sermons condemning homosexuality were read at the last two Friday prayer gatherings in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum of some 2 million people. The slum is a bastion of support for fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia.